"If they had released it earlier, it wouldn't have been exposed?"
Su Yanxi sat down on the sofa opposite Zhou Tong in a relaxed tone.
“I had anticipated that someone would use my father’s past to make a fuss, so I prepared a counterattack in advance.”
Zhou Tong frowned slightly: "You expected this? It sounds like this isn't the first time you've been attacked by a similar scandal."
“Yes,” Su Yanxi sighed softly. “Dad has been pitiful enough, carrying this stigma for so many years. What’s even more pitiful is that someone actually dares to use this stigma to further smear his son.”
After sighing, Su Yanxi revealed a confident smile.
"Since they're going to drag me into this media storm, I might as well take this opportunity to clear my father's name and clear up the injustice he's suffered for so many years. Anyway, the local TV station was planning to make a feature on him, so I guess I'll be doing them a favor!"
Zhou Tong was confused and stunned. After a while, she clapped her hands and exclaimed with delight, "You're really something! I thought you were clueless and unprepared, but I didn't expect that I was on the third floor and you were on the fifth!"
Su Yanxi shook her head modestly: "I don't deserve such praise. It's just that I've encountered similar things before, so I've learned my lesson and prepared a backup plan."
"You played this hand so well!" Zhou Tong counted on his fingers, "You not only cleared your father's name and restored his innocence and public goodwill, but you also built up momentum for your father's upcoming interview!"
"Once this feature gets shared widely, people's sympathy for you will definitely skyrocket. Furthermore, it will also bring attention to our show!"
Zhou Tong clicked his tongue and typed rapidly on his laptop.
"This is amazing, I have to share this!"
"I'll talk to Director He later and ask him to share this if he can. It's a great opportunity to get attention, I can't miss it!"
"Thank you for your trouble, Sister Tong." Su Yanxi sipped her tea with an elegant demeanor. "Next time you encounter a similar situation, don't panic. I can handle it."
"If you had told me this half an hour ago, I definitely wouldn't have believed you—I would probably have cursed you out. But now that you're telling me this, all I can say is: Wow!"
Zhou Tong gave a thumbs up.
"Your sister-in-law must be a very capable person, otherwise how could she have found Zhang Miaoshen to write articles for you? This person is a super heavyweight, you can't hire him even if you have money."
As Zhou Tong spoke, he casually dragged the selected reporter Zhang's name into the search box.
This reporter, Zhang, has infiltrated several criminal organizations and dismantled countless dens of trafficking in women and children. He is loved and admired by the public for his fair, rational, and compassionate approach.
Such a person is naturally not someone that ordinary people can hire.
Su Yanxi became vague again, answering tactfully, "This... I'm not quite sure either. I guess my brother and sister-in-law asked Reporter Zhang for help under the guise of friendship?"
Chapter 22
Brother and sister-in-law...?
Zhou Tong paused. But what shocked her even more than the terms "brother" and "sister-in-law" were the related recommendations next to the search page.
[Related Person: Cai Yuyan, former CCTV host]
"-Holy crap?"
The clues formed a closed loop in Zhou Tong's mind. Zhou Tong looked up at Su Yanxi in shock, his jaw dropping as if it would fall off.
"The 'sister-in-law' you mentioned, so it's Cai Yuyan?!"
Author's Note:
"I can handle anything"—that comes from the elegance and confidence of a wealthy family's young mistress.
Today's 6 PM show is a little late again! Sumi Marseille! I'll perform a sliding knee slide for everyone, sob sob sob.
#12 is not just one of many ace cards.
"So the 'sister-in-law' you were talking about is actually a man?"
Zhou Tong finally realized what was going on.
"I fucking—I always thought it was a woman!" Zhou Tong exclaimed in surprise, "Could you please be more precise next time? Sister-in-law is sister-in-law, brother and sister-in-law is brother and sister-in-law, don't confuse me so much that I can't even tell the difference between men and women!"
Su Yanxi chuckled awkwardly, "Okay, okay?"
Only about ten years ago, when same-sex marriage was first legalized, people were quite strict in distinguishing between "brother and sister-in-law" and "sister-in-law," but later they gradually became used interchangeably. This is neither Su Yanxi's fault nor Zhou Tong's fault.
"Good heavens, how could I not know Cai Yuyan? She was a CCTV host who was among the top three in the nation's popularity six years ago!"
"No wonder you weren't flustered when you saw it trending! If I had Tsai Yu-Yen as my brother and sister-in-law, I wouldn't be flustered either!"
“Yes, it’s all because my brother and sister-in-law are so capable.” Su Yanxi praised her brother and sister-in-law. “I’ve always felt indignant, thinking that my father’s injustice has not been thoroughly cleared up. When my sister-in-law found out, she comforted me and offered to help me find someone to write a feature article for the media.”
Wow, no wonder he's the former national host—he's so approachable!
Zhou Tong was still puzzled after he finished speaking.
"That's strange. I remember you're an only child. You don't have an older brother, so where would you get an older brother and sister-in-law?"
Su Yanxi smiled without saying anything, letting Zhou Tong guess for the time being.
"I vaguely remember that when Tsai Yu-yen retired from the entertainment industry to get married, some people speculated that she must have married a very wealthy man?"
"Really? Is he really a super-rich man?"
Feeling immense pressure under Zhou Tong's gossipy gaze, Su Yanxi quickly beckoned Lin Xiaohai to refill her tea.
He carefully considered his words, and was about to explain to Zhou Tong when Zhou Tong suddenly had a flash of inspiration—he had "realized" it himself!
"Your father was the current mayor, so your family must be quite well-off, right?" Zhou Tong was convinced by his own reasoning. "If your family is well-off, then your cousins must be quite well-off too. So Cai Yuyan married your cousin, right?"
Su Yanxi swallowed hard, thinking to herself that this was definitely not right.
Faced with the choice between telling the truth and continuing to keep it a secret, he chose to keep it a secret.
"Yes." He nodded emphatically, feeling uneasy, and said in an awkward lie, "It's like this."
In reality, his family background has never been described as "very good".
Perhaps before her father's accident, with his meager civil servant salary and her mother's earnings as a dance teacher, they could say they were "not doing too badly." But after her father was falsely accused and imprisoned, her mother also lost her job; Su Yanxi's childhood was spent in hardship.
My memories are filled with dimly lit stairwells, the vegetable market I rushed through after school, and my little home at night, waiting for my father to come home, and for my mother to finish her work.
His hands, which were praised so highly by Bie Yunzong, were transformed from their initial slender but rough and yellowish-black state to their current fair and smooth appearance through continuous care and maintenance.
Su Yanxi hid her emotions well, but Zhou Tong was too caught up in gossip to notice anything amiss: "Wow—Cai Yuyan's backing is amazing!"
"But didn't you just say that this isn't the first time you've encountered something like this?"
Su Yanxi replied, "Yes."
“We can’t just reveal this trump card; we need to keep it well hidden.” Zhou Tong put away his gossipy face and seriously discussed the strategy with Su Yanxi. “The enemy is in the shadows, and we are in the open; it’s not suitable to make any big moves. You focus on filming for now. I’ll communicate further with the operations team about the online public opinion.”
Su Yanxi obediently replied with "okay" and "understood." But what he was actually thinking was: it's okay not to be on guard.
He not only knew who "the person in the shadows" was, but also had many cards to play against that person.
His trump card is definitely not just Tsai Yu-yen.
At the other end of the hotel corridor, Xiang Mingyue was hiding in his room, having just finished a phone call with his sugar daddy.
As soon as he hung up the phone, he threw it onto the bed and cursed, "You bald bastard, you only give me this little bit of money every month—you don't have any connections or resources, but you have so many demands!"
He sat down in front of the computer, gritting his teeth as he stared at the interview transcript on the screen. Having spent years struggling in the second tier of the entertainment industry, Xiang Mingyue could tell this was a meticulously prepared—perfect—press release!
After hiring a renowned journalist to write the article, and then having authoritative and influential media outlets and bloggers broadcast it, Su Yanxi's counterattack was brilliant! Compared to the Bentley sports car and luxury handbags she saw during the audition, Xiang Mingyue envied this even more: a top-notch public relations team.
Xiang Mingyue sensed that Su Yanxi had changed.
At first glance, she seemed to be more friendly and approachable, but Xiang Mingyue only felt an intensified coldness and a more distant arrogance.
Like being reborn from a cocoon, Su Yanxi has become different in every way.
Are all these... backed by powerful financial backers?
Xiang Mingyue pulled out the video he had secretly recorded in the hotel and began to scrutinize the "rich young master" next to Su Yanxi. After examining it frame by frame, he selected an angle that showed more of the man's profile, extracted a screenshot of the wealthy man, and sent it to an industry expert with whom he had a decent relationship, asking for help in identifying him.
Chapter 23
Xiang Mingyue had a premonition that this "young master" must have some extraordinary background.
Inside the 40-story office building of YUNSO Holdings Group in the North City CBD area.
A handsome man with a slender figure, carrying an eight-month-old baby in one arm, knocked on the door of the president's office with light steps.
"Congrui, am I coming in?"
The subordinate carrying the bag hurriedly stepped forward to open the door for the man. Before the man could even greet his husband, he saw his younger brother, Bie Yunzong, curled up on the sofa.
"Yunzong, what's wrong with you?" Cai Yuyan asked curiously, carrying the child to Bie Congrui's side.
Bie Congrui didn't even glance at his own younger brother: "He's withdrawn, don't pay him any attention."
"Why are you throwing a tantrum all of a sudden?" Cai Yuyan handed the child to her husband and asked, whether unintentionally or deliberately, "Yunzong, are you having another fight with Yanxi?"
Despite being 1.86 meters tall, Bie Yunzong bent his legs and lay on his side on the sofa, curled up like a caterpillar.
He crossed his arms over his chest, rested his head on a cushion, and leaned against the back of the sofa, so withdrawn that he refused to show his face to anyone.
Hearing his brother and sister-in-law's question, he snorted and said, "Mind your own business!"
“Yan hope wouldn’t stoop to arguing with him—he must have just gotten angry himself.” Bie Congrui said casually, holding the child in one arm and his wife’s hand in the other. “He’s wondering why Yan Xi asked you for help with public relations but didn’t contact him immediately.”
Cai Yuyan chuckled upon hearing this and teased Bie Yunzong, "You're wondering about this? Even if Yanxi really contacted you, so what? You'd still have to contact me and your brother, wouldn't you? Yanxi just chose the quickest and most direct method. Don't be angry."
It would have been better if he hadn't said anything, because once he did, Bie Yunzong became even more confused. He angrily sat up cross-legged on the sofa and said, "No, I'm going to stay angry!"
Don't point at him from Rui's eyes: "Don't step on my sofa and get it dirty."
Ignoring his brother's warning, Bie Yunzong began to complain about his aloof and heartless beautiful wife: "When she first came over, she remembered to video chat and chat with me before bed. Now she won't even call me—I'll call her back anyway! She doesn't answer the phone or reply to messages. Don't you think that's going too far?"
Don't let the dog get more and more aggrieved the more you talk about it.
"Are you really that busy? If you are, why don't you call me when there's an emergency?" Bie Yunzong pouted. "Am I no longer my wife's favorite little cutie?"
I don't know how wronged Bie Yunzong was, but Bie Congrui and Cai Yuyan really wanted to laugh after hearing it.
“Cute?” Bie Congrui poked his son’s chubby cheek and mercilessly exposed his younger brother, “Don’t even think about it, you have nothing to do with the word ‘cute’.”
Tsai Yu-yen softened her tone and offered a few words of comfort: "Yan-hsi is just busy. I also came from half of the entertainment industry, and I know how little time artists have for their private lives once they start working."
“But that’s strange,” Bie Yunzong turned to look at his brother and sister-in-law, “Sister-in-law, why are you able to quit your job, get married, and stay home with my brother?”
"My wife has been focused on her comeback this year, and I feel like she values me less and less..."
“You can’t make that analogy,” Cai Yuyan said softly, defending her sister-in-law. “When I married your brother, I was already twenty-six—I had achieved my career goals and won all the awards I was supposed to, so naturally I could resign and retire from the entertainment industry without any regrets.”